On the benefits of stretching and yawning

A lot has been written about yawning. What is the cause of yawning? Some scientists believe that as a result of yawning, the blood flow to the brain increases.

Others believe that this regulates the temperature of the brain, which prevents overheating.

It was believed that a deep breath saturates the blood with oxygen, which enters the brain and muscles, maintaining a state of readiness to act decisively. However, this is not confirmed by any scientific data. A lot is also written about the mechanism of yawning. We will not bore the reader with all sorts of unverified data.

So, what is known about yawning?

1. Yawning helps ward off sleep and invigorate the body.
2. People yawn during emotional stress.

Having worked with test pilots and parachutists for many years, specialists noticed many times that before responsible flights, many of them began to yawn. In situations with strong emotional stress and danger, the ancient mechanism turns itself on spontaneously: people instinctively freeze and hold their breath. And then another mechanism — yawning — turns itself on.

1. We yawn more often early in the morning and at night when we fight sleep.
2. Yawning is contagious. As soon as one person yawns, everyone around picks it up. The thing is that yawning occurs easily as a mimetic reflex. This reflex makes us not only yawn, but also smile, if there’s someone laughing.

We want to contribute to the mechanism of occurrence of yawning (also unscientific, but from our point of view there is logic here). To do this, we should pay attention to stretching, which we also do when we wake up in the morning. With age, some people lose this mechanism. But look at newborn babies. How beautifully they stretch themselves when they wake up. Cats and dogs also stretch themselves.

I remember when I was little and woke up in the morning, my grandmother was sitting beside me, held both hands along the body and said, «stretch yourself, stretch yourself, stretch yourself…» I bent my back and stretched all my body out. Then I did the same thing to my children (the habits we received as children are transferred).

What happens when you yawn and stretch yourself? Naturally, your muscles stretch. It is the well-known stretching, which is performed by athletes and ordinary people before various exercises and competition. All yoga exercises are based on stretching.

People have long realized that stretching is useful. The thing is that all our emotional comfort is determined by our muscle tone.

When we have an emotional upsurge, our shoulders involuntarily straighten out and our eye «light up». If we fear, on the contrary, the tone of the pelvis muscles decreased. There may be involuntary urination.

The same can be seen in dogs. When she feels good, she wags her tail. And if you throw a stone at her, she will run away with her tail between her legs (the muscle tone of the posterior regions and the tail is reduced).

That is to say the kaleidoscope of our muscle tone determines our mood.

Thus, yawning and stretching are is an innate mechanism that regulates our muscle tone. Namely, different diseases are associated with the change in the muscle tone.

What is pain? It is a dramatic increase in our muscle tone. Analgesics and drugs reduce muscle tone before our eyes, leading to the disappearance of pain and relaxation.

So yawning and stretching is a natural mechanism that regulates muscle tone and through it our well-being. Do not neglect it.

There is another unconditional mechanism that stands close to yawning — sneezing. When you sneeze, involuntary progressive reduction of many muscles occurs: the larynx, mouth, face and even the torso. After sneezing, we feel a little relief. Both people and animals sneeze. Sneezing is also useful for humans. I remember a story by a Russian writer. One of the characters of the last century put tobacco in his nose and caused sneezing. This was considered useful.

Recommendations:

During the day, it is necessary to yawn and stretch yourself many times, taking a deep breath and exhaling noisily — it relieves muscle tension in the jaw. It is advisable not to do so in public (in private).

When you are flying on a plane, the difference in pressure blocks your ears. Yawn. Since the middle ear cavity is connected to the pharynx by the guttural duct, yawning evens out the pressure.

So stretch yourself, yawn or sneeze as often as you can. Sneeze at everything!!!